“Did it!” he cried, nipping the cherry-red steel in a fresh place and thrusting it back in the fire. “Don’t they know? Didn’t they hear in the night?”
“No,” I said; “they heard nothing, not a sound. The dog did not even bark, they say.”
“Would he bite a man hard?”
“He’d almost eat a man if he attacked him.”
“Ay, he looks it,” said Pannell, patting the black coal-dust down over a glowing spot.
“Well, who do you think did it?” I said.
“Someone as come over the wall, I s’pose; but you’d better not talk about it.”
“But I like to talk about it,” I said. “Oh, I should like to find out who it was! It was someone here.”
“Here!” he cried, whisking out the steel.
“Yes, the sneaking, blackguardly, cowardly hound!” I cried.